Unsettling Truths and Everyday Suspense
This collection presents a series of incomplete segments, moments captured mid-scene, or pages torn from a larger, unseen book. These unfinished tales challenge readers to engage actively, envisioning the context that precedes each excerpt and the events that would follow. Each piece is an open invitation for imaginative completion.
The project functions as an experiment at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence. It examines how digital tools can serve as a partner in the writing process, shaping new forms of storytelling and enhancing digital literacy. The goal is to illustrate technology’s capacity to support and diversify artistic expression.
Today’s selection delves into the chilling depths of Horror, the intricate puzzles of Mystery, the relatable settings of Contemporary Fiction, and the close-quarters tension of Domestic Thriller. Jamie F. Bell and Leaf Richards are among the contributing authors, lending their distinct voices to these compelling narratives.
We invite you to engage with these stories as a co-creator. Let your mind complete the narratives, imagine their origins, and envision their ultimate conclusions. Your active participation transforms these fragments into whole, personal literary experiences.
Today’s Unfinished Tales and Short Stories
Explore a spectrum of short stories including Horror, Mystery, Contemporary Fiction, and Domestic Thriller, complemented by Young Adult (YA), Gritty Realism, Minimalist, Post-Apocalyptic Survival, and Mythological Retelling categories. Our project aims to advance digital literacy and transform publishing, harnessing creative technology to envision the exciting possibilities of AI-assisted narrative and the future of digital publishing.
Verdant Decay
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Young Adult (YA) | Genre: Horror
The heat of high summer clung to everything, a humid shroud that muffled sound and sweetened the air with the cloying scent of honeysuckle and rot. Sunlight, thick and buttery, struggled through a canopy of overgrown trees, dappling the long-forgotten drive leading to the estate. Vines, like grasping emerald fingers, had begun to reclaim the stone walls, patiently, relentlessly pulling the old world back into the earth. An unsettling stillness hung heavy, broken only by the incessant buzz of unseen insects and the occasional creak of aged timber in the barely perceptible breeze.
The Stutter of Brick Dust
Author: Leaf Richards | Category: Gritty Realism | Genre: Mystery
The alley reeked of stale beer, damp cardboard, and the metallic tang that often clung to the forgotten spaces of the city. A cold spring drizzle had just eased, leaving every brick face weeping, every grimy puddle shivering under the dull glow of a distant streetlamp. Mike hunched, his breath puffing visible in the chill, as Patricia meticulously traced a finger along the uneven edge of a loose grate. This wasn’t a game; the air was thick with something far heavier than just the damp.
Asphalt’s Fever
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Minimalist | Genre: Contemporary Fiction
The morning sun, already a hammer blow against the downtown core, baked the street where the incident had occurred. A faint, metallic tang still hung in the heavy air, a phantom limb of violence the cleaning crews couldn’t quite scour away. Even the pigeons, usually bold and indifferent, seemed to give the patch of pavement a wide berth, their cooing muted.
The Heavy Quilt
Category: Post-Apocalyptic Survival | Genre: Domestic Thriller
Jack sits in his makeshift living room, trapped by his own mind and body, observing the minute details of his decay while his wife, Martha, tends to the house with unnerving energy.
Malice
Author: Jamie F. Bell | Category: Mythological Retelling | Genre: Horror
The air, thick with the saccharine scent of new blossom, hung heavy and humid around the abandoned glasshouses at the edge of the university grounds. Twisted ivy, unnaturally robust, coiled around the crumbling brickwork, its tendrils reaching like grasping fingers. A low, persistent hum, too deep for insects, vibrated through the soles of Liisa’s worn boots, a sound that felt more ancient than the building itself.
About the Project
By design, these stories have no beginning and no end. Many stories are fictional, but many others are not. They are snapshots from worlds that never fully exist, inviting you to imagine what comes before and what happens next. We had fun exploring this project, and hope you will too.
The Unfinished Tales and Short Stories collection is an experimental, creative research project by The Arts Incubator Winnipeg and the Art Borups Corners Storytelling clubs. Each chapter is a unique interdisciplinary arts and narrative storytelling experiment, born from a collaboration between artists and applied AI researchers, designed to explore the boundaries of creative writing, automation, and storytelling. The project was made possible with funding and support from the Ontario Arts Council Multi and Inter-Arts Projects program and the Government of Ontario.
